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When is an application not processed in Finland?

A decision to consider your application inadmissible means that your grounds for asylum will not be examined.

However, the Finnish Immigration Service will always conduct a preliminary examination and decide whether your application contains grounds for continuing the examination. If there are grounds for examination, the Finnish Immigration Service will determine whether you need asylum or some other residence permit. If there are no such grounds, a decision may be taken to consider you application inadmissible.

Your application for international protection may be dismissed in Finland in the following cases:

  • You have arrived from a safe country where you have been granted asylum or subsidiary protection or otherwise sufficient protection, and you can be returned to this country (safe country of asylum).
  • You have arrived from a safe country where you could have been granted asylum or subsidiary protection or otherwise sufficient protection, you have sufficient ties to that country and you can be returned there (safe third country).
  • You can be sent to another country that is responsible for examining your asylum application according to the Dublin Regulation (the Dublin procedure).
  • You have received international protection in another EU Member State.
  • You have submitted a subsequent application that does not contain such new grounds that the Finnish Immigration Service could examine the application.

Dublin procedure

The European countries have agreed that an asylum application is only examined by one state, which can be

  • another EU Member State
  • Norway
  • Iceland
  • Switzerland
  • Liechtenstein

The Dublin procedure means determining the state responsible for examining an asylum application. The procedure is based on the Dublin Regulation, which directly binds the EU Member States. Various criteria are used to determine whether a specific country is responsible for examining your application. These criteria are listed in order of importance provided by law. If one criterion is not relevant in your case, the next criterion will be considered. According to the Dublin Regulation, the responsibility for examining your asylum application lies with the state

  1. where you have family members;
  2. that has granted you a residence permit or a visa;
  3. where you first arrived from a country that is not an EU Member State, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland or Liechtenstein; or
  4. where you have applied for asylum before.

This state has to take you back and examine the asylum application that you have submitted in Finland.

The Finnish Immigration Service will invite you to a Dublin interview to determine the country where your asylum application should be examined. The purpose of the interview is also to determine whether there are grounds for examining your application in Finland. The decision will not be made at the interview. For more information on the interview, go to the Instructions page and read the document ‘Dublin and beneficiaries of protection in the EU’.

If another EU Member State is responsible for examining your application for asylum, your application will not be examined in Finland. You will be refused entry and sent back to that Member State.

In such a case, during your asylum interview we will not examine whether there are grounds for granting you asylum. Instead, you will return to your reception centre to wait for a transfer to the country that will examine your application.

If the Finnish Immigration Service is of the opinion that another Member State is responsible for examining your asylum application, it will request that Member State to admit you or to take you back. This depends on whether or not you have previously applied for asylum in another Member State.   

If another Member State agrees to take responsibility for the examination of your application, you will be served a decision stating that

  • your asylum application will not be examined in Finland, and
  • you will be transferred to the country responsible for examining your application.

You will be transferred to the Member State responsible for the examination of your application 

  • within six months after that Member State has accepted its responsibility, or  
  • if you decide to appeal against the decision and an administrative court or the Supreme Administrative Court prohibits the enforcement of the decision, within six months after the appellate court has ruled that you can be transferred to that other country.

If a member of your family is in Europe

When the Finnish Immigration Service determines the state responsible for examining your asylum application, the family member criterion is first in order of importance.  When you apply for asylum in Finland by contacting the police or border control authorities, immediately tell them if you have family members in Europe. If you do not know where your family members are, immediately notify the Finnish Immigration Service if you later find out their whereabouts. The Finnish Immigration Service may ask you to give evidence of your family ties. Such evidence can include a marriage certificate, an extract from the population register of your home country, or some other reliable document.

It is important that you tell us if you have family members in another Member State before the first decision on your application is issued. If you wish to be admitted to the same country with your family members, you and your family members must give written consent to the Dublin procedure. Your consent is usually requested at the Dublin interview organised by the Finnish Immigration Service.

The Finnish Immigration Service determines the responsible state only when you submit your first application for asylum. The responsible state will not be changed even if you later told us about your family members in other Member States. Once your first asylum application has been examined, you can no longer be transferred or move to another Member State on the basis of the Dublin Regulation. If you submit a new application for asylum, it will be examined by the same state that examined your first application.

Who are considered family members?

If you are 18 years of age or older, a family member is 

  • your spouse, your cohabiting partner, or your child aged under 18 who has been granted international protection or has applied for asylum in another Dublin country.

If you are a minor (under 18 years of age) without a parent or guardian, a family member is 

  • your mother
  • your father
  • or another adult who has had responsibility for you in the Member State in which this adult is residing.

Read more about the Dublin procedure 

For more information about the Dublin procedure, see the following brochures:

  • I have asked for asylum in the EU - which country will handle my claim 
  • I’m in the Dublin procedure - what does this mean
  • Children asking for international protection

The brochures are available in different languages on the Instructions page under the heading Asylum and the Dublin procedure.

Eurodac fingerprint database

The Eurodac fingerprint database speeds up the process of determining the state that is responsible for processing an asylum application. Since 15 January 2003, the fingerprints of all persons over the age of 14 who have submitted an application for asylum have been saved in the database. If a person submits another asylum application in a Member State, it will be detected by the Eurodac system.

If there are no information about an asylum seeker in any international databases, Finland may not have a reason to request another Member State to process the asylum seeker’s application and deport the asylum seeker on the basis of the Dublin Regulation.

For example, simply the knowledge that the asylum seeker has visited or passed through another country does not give Finland a reason to do this. Illegal residence in the country must be proved and the person must have stayed in the country for more than five months.

Further information

Dublin III Regulation

Eurodac Regulation